I agree with Carl Mazur in that it would be impossible to keep every strain from every population in the US in one collection. However, sitting around another twenty years discussing the problem and then only maintaining some 60-100 strains in cultivations is also not an option, imo. Just because it isn't radically different enough to be registered as a subspecies isn't enough reason for me not go grow this Sarracenia alata 'alabama roadside'.
The hardest thing about having a national collection of a size that could include plants like this would be the concerns about where to keep it and how to fund it. I have a different idea that solves both of these problems, somewhat.
We would need one or more collection points. At these sights, we would collect a few plants or seeds from a few sites a year, maybe a few dozen a year at the most. We would begin with sites that are most immediatelly threatened. These plants/seeds would be grown out and distributed to responsible growers with the space and ability to grow them. As each plant variety gets distributed, a new variety is brought to the collection point(s). This way we would be continually bringing in new genetic variability (or "heritage", as Mr. Mazur calls it) into cultivation. This would be a slow, organized, and well thought out process. We can not have everyone going to the bog most immedietally in their area and ripping out plants. We must have a plan before anyone does anything. Once the plants are in cultivation, stage two of my plan comes in.
Have you heard of the seed savers exchange? They are a group of roughly a thousand people throughout the world, most of them in the US, who are dedicated to "keeping alive" heirloom flower, vegetable, fruit, and grain varieties. Thousands of varieties are dying out simply because the commercial sector has found varieties that, though they might not taste as good, last longer. Anywho, the way the society works is this: Interested growers aquire a variety of seed. They grow this variety out, being carefull about cross-pollination, etc. They harvest the seed from the varieties they grew, and then re-offer them to the other members in a yearly "yearbook". Other members can buy seeds (all varieties cost the same, just above the cost of shipping/packaging) to grow out. Often members listing seeds will indicate that the seeds can only be purchased if you agree to re-offer the next generation of seeds. By doing this, they are keeping thousands of varieties of heirloom fruits and veggies from extinction. Over 3000 varieties of tomatoes alone are offered in the yearbook! Red, white, green, black, pink, you name it... taste ranging over the whole scale, almost everything that has ever been offered commercially and thousands that haven't.
Now, keeping a collection of 10000 fruits, vegetables and grains alive would be a task that one organization, university, or private party COULD NEVER manage. And yet, this "collection" exists. It doesn't exist in one place, but rather in many collections scattered throughout the US. This has several advantages.
1. Nobody has a load larger than they can manage.
2. We don't have all of our eggs in one basket. A storm, bad freeze, or disease doesn't wipe out large parts of the collection.
3. Funding is private and voluntary - there is not cover costs to handle, except for the costs of putting out the yearbook.
As you will by now have guessed, my point with all this is that a national sarracenia collection could be maintained in this same way. Think about it:
If we have only a few locations that are growing all the sarr. varieties in the world, then propagating and shipping them, we could cover the entire state of vermont! Every single strain left on the face of the planet, times all those sarracenia lovers who want them. That is a TON of work and space to expect from just a few growers for more than the first few years needed to get it started.
If we maintain the collection by sending seeds however, all that needs to be maintained is a few plants per person to provide the seed.
We could make a national database that lists for each variety who is growing that variety. Those who have received plants from collection system would be registered in this database. Anyone interested in growing a particular strain would contact one of the current growers for seed. If we are worried about not putting our cp nurseries out of business, this would allow them to have the "monopoly" on plant sales, while we merely distribute seed.
Think about the benefits:
Firstly, the housing and maintanance costs would be reduced to the maintanance of a collection of a few dozen plants per year. The rest of the costs of growing, taking care of, and sending seeds of the national collection would be divided between private growers, who choose which and how many plants to take on, and don't mind shelling out a few bucks to grow their own plants.
Secondly, there isn't the hassle of shipping plants, only seeds are shipped.
So yeah - by distributing the collection from one or three collections to all the interested growers in the US, we can also distribute the time, effort, and money needed to maintain the collection to all those growers. Would this be a viable idea?
This is something that could be done by private growers and through private funding. We would still have to get sanctioned by a few organizations in order to get permission to collect some of the material. Secondly, this would have to be an organized effort, not a free for all. Most of us could not be involved in the beginning efforts, while some dozen or two people set up the organization and get it running. Once it is running, everyone interested could start growing plants and re-offering seed. How many strains are kept in cultivation would be entirely up to the willingness of growers to keep that many separate strains.
just my 2 cents.
-noah